Sonata smiled as she glanced over at Lex and saw that he had fallen asleep, shaking her head wryly at the sight. That he would only agree to lie down if he could look at one of those scrolls that was in the dragon’s hoard had made her roll her eyes at the time, since it was clear, at least to her, that he was extremely tired. But she’d let him have his own way, and sure enough, now he was totally catching some Z’s.
Gently picking his scroll up so that it wouldn’t disturb him – she could only imagine the tantrum he’d throw if he rolled on top of it in his sleep and ripped it – she rolled it up and put it on the room’s sole desk. Nodding to herself, she turned back to the hole-thingy, currently spread out in the middle of the floor.
Just the sight of all those coins was enough to make her start giggling softly. She briefly thought about scooping up a few of them and going out on a spending spree, but eventually decided not to. Lex had been the one to slay the dragon, after all, so really they were his. Besides, these didn’t even look like Equestrian bits; she’d probably need to figure out how to exchange them or something, and that just sounded like a hassle.
Sighing, Sonata glanced out a window. It was only late afternoon, still plenty of time to go out and do something, especially with the entire city still partying. On the other hand…Sonata glanced at Lex again, feeling a yawn start to form. Maybe a quick power-nap wouldn’t be such a bad idea. It had been a really long day, after all, what with fighting a dragon and making up with each other and her first official job as a spokespony and everything.
Gently climbing onto the bed, Sonata lay down beside her boyfriend, smiling as she looked at his sleeping face. When he wasn’t scowling all the time, he was super cute. Not as cute as when he smiled, but still easy on the eyes. Of course, that might be because she was still buzzing from them making up earlier in the woods. That had been so romantic! Well, except not really, what with the crying and arguing and feeling guilty and everything, but romantic because they’d both remembered just how much they loved each other. Lex had even apologized!
Sonata silently sent thoughts of thanks to Kara. If it hadn’t been for what the love goddess had said, she might have ended up losing Lex! I totes need to run into her again and tell her that I owe her one. Like, a super big one.
Yawning again, Sonata nodded to herself as her eyes closed. A moment later, she drifted off, curled up next to her beloved.
“Hello Sonata. You seem to be doing much better.”
“Kara?!” Sonata eyes widened. In front of her was the now-familiar form of Everglow’s love goddess…or at least one of them; wasn’t Lash-whatshername supposed to be one too?
Looking around, Sonata realized that she was back in the same place that she’d met the goddess before. They were in a large room with no windows and various furniture, all of which was cushioned, spread out across it. It was a little dark, illuminated only by soft lamps that were strewn haphazardly about. Lounging on a central cushion so large that it was almost a bed was Kara, exactly where Sonata had left her.
“I’m back! But that must mean…oh my gosh, I’m dreaming again!”
Kara nodded. “You are. I brought you here after I heard you call out to me again. You sounded much happier this time, so I wanted to know if everything had worked out between you and your stallion.”
“It did!” grinned Sonata. “It did and it was all thanks to you! I thought that we weren’t going to be able to work things out, and he was, like, sooo mad! But then I remembered what you told me and I asked him if he still loved me and he said yes and then we were both crying and hugging and we totes made up!”
Kara beamed, and the sight made Sonata’s joy redouble. “That’s wonderful!” gushed the goddess. “I’m so happy for you!” She held out a hoof in a welcoming gesture, and Sonata charged in to hug the alicorn deity tightly.
After the embrace had concluded, Kara nudged Sonata to lie down next to her. “Now, tell me everything that’s happened since you were here last. Every single detail. I want to hear all of it.”
Sonata was eager to comply, and started talking effusively, going on at length about everything that had happened, and how she felt about it, since the last time she’d seen Kara. The goddess was an attentive listener, nodding and prodding Sonata along expertly, oftentimes asking for more details or what Sonata had thought of certain things.
Finally, Sonata finished her tale.
“…and then I laid down next to him, and I was thinking about how thankful I was that you helped me out when I totes needed it, and then I guess I must have fallen asleep, because next thing I know I’m here with you!” She paused for a moment, suddenly feeling like she’d spent a very long time talking. “Wow, I guess a lot of stuff happened!”
Kara nodded. “Indeed. You and he went through a lot. But in the end, your love reunited you, just like I knew it would.”
“Aw,” blushed Sonata. “Thanks!”
“Now,” continued Kara, “I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”
“A favor?” Sonata blinked, then smiled, happy to be able to do something for the pony that had done so much for her. “For sure I can! You’ve helped me out with Lex out twice now, first when we were in all those caves in your realm or whatever, and then again when I was here last time. Just name it!”
Kara grinned at Sonata’s eagerness. “Well, it just breaks my heart to think that there might be other lonely ponies out there, having problems finding love. I want to help them, but I can’t.”
“You can’t?” Sonata tilted her head in confusion. “Why not?”
“Because,” explained Kara, “I can’t reach them. I’m too far from your world to make contact with them.”
“Huh? But you’re here with me right now.”
“That’s because you called out to me. By calling my name, both aloud and in your heart, you made it possible for me to find you.” Kara slipped a hoof under Sonata’s chin, raising her head even as she lowered her own to place their faces near each other. “That’s why I need your help, Sonata. I need you to tell everypony about me, so that I can help them like I have you. You’ll do that for me, won’t you?”
“Oh, sure. That’s no big deal.” Sonata smiled guilelessly. “I’ll totes tell everyone who’s having love problems to give you a call.”
“Good girl,” purred Kara. “Then-”
What happened next was a blur.
Kara suddenly leapt to her hooves, a look of alarm crossing her face. But no sooner had she stood up than there were two other alicorns there, facing her from either side. Each had a hoof out, pressing Kara’s wings against her sides as though to keep her from spreading them. That was when Sonata suddenly noticed that they weren’t in that windowless room anymore. Instead, the scenery was now a dull grey in every direction, featureless and barren.
“So it was true,” intoned the first alicorn. She was a beautiful dark blue, the color of the night sky when the sun had only recently set. Her white mane and tail contrasted with her golden horn, and silvery bangles decorated her front and her legs. “You dared to intrude upon the realm of dreams.”
“You will pay for trespassing here, harlot,” snarled the other alicorn. Her coat was darker than her counterpart’s, and her wings were like a bat’s, with armor covering her body.
Disoriented, Sonata spoke up. “Like, what’s going on?” She around, not sure whether to focus more on the newcomers or the alien environment. The former won out, and she looked back and forth between the two strange alicorns, except…that one in the armor looked kinda familiar… “Hey! I remember you! You were there whe-”
The armored alicorn swept a wing towards Sonata without glancing at her, the gesture undeniably dismissive, and suddenly she woke up, sitting bolt upright in bed. “Huh?! What was…” she trailed off as her brain caught up to her awakened state, leaving her blinking.
“Wow, that was weird,” she muttered to herself. Belatedly realizing that it was dark outside, she laid back down, looking to her side. “Lex, are you…huh?” Realizing that her boyfriend wasn’t beside her, she blinked as she saw a note on the pillow. Picking it up, she walked over to the window, where the city lights gave her enough illumination to read what was written there.
A moment later, her brow furrowed. “An errand? At this hour? Geez Lex. Workaholic much?” she muttered to herself. Feeling too awake to fall back asleep, she glanced around and noticed that the portable hole was still rolled up on the table. Smiling to herself, Sonata decided that maybe spending some money wasn’t a bad idea after all.
A sudden rumbling from her belly made up her mind, and she turned on the lights, blinking at the brightness. Time to see if this place had room service…
“Night Mare, Moon Princess, to what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Kara sweetly, her sultry grin back in place. “Hopefully because you two are looking for some pleasure of your own?” Still pinned between the two, she wiggled her rump as best she was able. “Who’s up for some hot mare-on-mare-on-mare action?”
Neither goddess responded to her flirtation, maintaining their stern looks. “You’ve always been a troublemaker, Kara,” said the Moon Princess. “But this is beyond the pale, even for you.”
The Night Mare was more direct in her recrimination. “The punishment you face for this crime will not be light,” she hissed. “Dreams are part of my divine portfolio, not yours!”
“Our portfolio,” corrected the Moon Princess, looking past Kara to give her rival a frown. The Night Mare ignored the correction, continuing to glare at their captive.
Kara shrugged, as though the charges being leveled against her didn’t concern her in the slightest. “It’s my nature to step on the hooves of others. I’m the goddess of shapeshifters as well as love, after all. In order to pull off my disguises, I need to be able to copy the abilities of even other gods.” She turned to give each goddess a sad look, the very picture of victimhood. “Surely you won't punish me just for being me?”
“That might have been a convincing argument,” admitted the Moon Princess, “if you had been engaging with that mortal while looking like one of us. But you made no attempt to disguise your identity, so you can’t claim that what you did falls within your purview.”
“The other gods will sanction you quite severely for this.” The Night Mare’s voice was filled with vengeful delight at the prospect. “With both of us bringing the indictment against you, they’ll have no other choice.”
“Indeed,” agreed the Moon Princess. “Now, let’s g-”
“Wait,” interrupted Kara, a little too quickly. “How about we make a deal instead? I’m sure I can offer both of you something…delightful, in exchange for forgetting about this little incident.”
“No deals.” The Moon Princess’s reply was immediate.
“What did you have in mind?” said the Night Mare a moment later, drawing a shocked look from her counterpart.
“What are you doing?!”
“What’s in my nature,” stated the Night Mare calmly. “Taking everything I can get.”
Kara grinned, delighted at her offer finding a recipient. “Oh, I’m sure we can come to an arrangement that you’ll like. Pleasing others is my specialty, after all.”
“There will not be any deals!” The Moon Princess’s voice had lowered, taking on a dangerous edge. “Even if you want to play dirty, I can still bring charges against her to the other gods on my own!”
“No, you can’t,” chuckled the Night Mare darkly. “You don’t have the standing necessary to do that.”
The Moon Princess frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about? Of course I do! The same as you: that she intruded upon my exclusive divine purview as goddess of dreams.”
“You’re even more foolish than I thought you were,” sneered the Night Mare. “Do you still not realize that your claim to that area doesn’t reach this jurisdiction?”
“That’s…” the Moon Princess trailed off, suddenly realizing what the Night Mare meant.
The other goddess of the night nodded, smirking. “Precisely. The pony whose dream she was visiting was on another world at the time, not Everglow. And since it’s a world where you have no worshippers, you cannot claim that she was violating your territory.”
Kara burst out laughing at the revelation, while the Moon Princess looked furious. “You realize that the same can be said of you, then.”
“Untrue.” The Night Mare shook her head. “I have a mortal servitor on this world. He gave me his formal pledge less than an hour ago.”
“You have a worshiper here? But who would…ah.” Kara chuckled as the answer came to her. “So it seems that Sonata’s not the only mare who repaired her relationship with that little virgin.”
The Moon Princess bared her teeth in frustration. “If you knew all of this, then why did you alert me to Kara’s transgression? Why bring me here at all?”
“Leverage,” answered the Night Mare. “Having you here made it easier to pressure her into offering me a boon in exchange for letting this matter go.”
“Oh, well played, Night Mare!” laughed Kara heartily.
The Moon Princess was silent for a long moment, glaring at both goddesses in impotent rage. Finally, she lowered her hoof from Kara’s wing, stepping back. “I will not forget this affront,” she vowed, before vanishing an instant later.
Snorting, the Night Mare lowered her hoof from Kara’s other side. Now freed, the love goddess spread her wings, stretching and giving a low, seductive moan of pleasure as she did so. When she finished the alluring display, she turned her head to the Night Mare. “So, what sort of favor did you have in mind? No, wait, let me guess.” She batted her eyes demurely. “A night together with me?”
The Night Mare’s lip curled in disdain. “Your tawdry nature appeals to me not at all, doxy. The favor that I plan on extracting from you will be much more substantial.”
“Are you sure?” Kara lowered her voice to a throaty whisper, circling the Night Mare languidly, her body swaying with every step. “For an entire night, I would be yours entirely. Your plaything. Your slave. I would beg for you with everything I am, refusing you nothing. All that you desire from me, I would desire to give you.”
The Night Mare’s body stiffened into iron rigidity as her hackles raised, and her face twisted into a deep scowl. Slowly, she moved her head to look at Kara directly, baring her teeth. “Insufficient,” she hissed.
“Aw, you’re no fun.” Kara sighed, her wings drooping as she abandoned her seduction attempt.
“I will have my fun when I’ve brought this entire pantheon to its knees before me.”
“Oh, I have no problem kneeling if that’s what you’d like.”
“Enough!” roared the Night Mare. “No more games! I will have your offer, or I will bring my complaints to the other gods! Don’t think that the Moon Princess would abandon her grudge against you to spite me if I did. She is far too invested in justice to let her personal feelings interfere.”
“You lawful types.” Kara rolled her eyes. “Always so focused on process, rather than pleasure. Fine, then. How about this? I’ll give a blessing to that little virgin you’ve thrown in with.”
The Night Mare frowned in thought. “A blessing of what nature?”
Kara shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters,” scoffed the Night Mare. “I would never trust you so much as to let you near my champion without knowing all of the details about what you plan to do.”
Kara rolled her eyes again. “Alright already. Honestly, you can make a girl feel so unloved sometimes, you know that?” She gave an exasperated sigh before speaking again. “I’ll offer my blessing as the goddess of love to your champion. From this, love for him shall bloom in those hearts that are receptive to his presence.”
She paused, then grinned. “I’ll also throw in some spells for the bedroom, so that he'll know what to do with the mares he gets…or stallions, if it turns out he swings that way too.”
The Night Mare didn’t rise to the bait, instead cocking a brow. “You’ll give him the power to control the hearts of those around him?”
“Only inadvertently. He won’t know that he’s been so blessed, and those affected won’t know it either.” She shrugged again. “In fact, strictly speaking nothing unusual will be happening at all. All I’ll be doing is actualizing the potential for romance within compatible partners who interact with him. If they could love someone like him, then they will. How they deal with those feelings is entirely up to them.”
The Night Mare was silent for a long moment, considering the offer even as she gave Kara a guarded look. “Don’t think that I don’t see your real motivation in this. You’re hoping that these other romances cause a rift between him and his mate so that she’ll continue to call out to you for guidance, giving you more of a presence in this world.”
“Sure,” admitted Kara. “But it’s not like this doesn’t help you out too. We both know that your chosen representative has all the charisma of a wet blanket by himself. Imagine how much his leadership would suffer if he and Sonata broke up for good for whatever reason. This way, he’ll be surrounded by heartfelt support no matter what, assuming he accepts the love he’s offered.” She paused, then added, “I’d recommend not telling him about this, by the way. He’s the type who’d likely try to squash any other blossoming romances if he knew about them.”
“So be it then.” The Night Mare’s tone was one of finality. “Give him this blessing.” Her eyes narrowed then, and she added one final clause. “Permanently and irrevocably.”
Kara paused at that. “That’s a bit demanding, isn’t it? I don’t need to tell you that an irrevocable blessing takes more power.”
“Only slightly. Far less than what you’ll gain from having even a small following here,” countered the Night Mare. “After all, we’re both going to be active on this world now. And since I'm sure you won't be foolish enough to ever tamper with the dreams of mortals again," she paused to let that statement sink in, before continuing, “I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to bear you any lingering grudges.”
Kara sighed again. “Have it your way then. One irrevocable blessing for a life filled with love, coming right up…”
Corrupted love makes her presence known. I, myself follow the path of corrupted laughter. We have 666 layers of super fun eternal damnation. And cupcakes. You like cupcakes right? So giggle at a ghosty and grab a fork and eat a brain, and smile, smile, smile: the laughing abyss awaits us all.
7742317 So...you liked the chapter, then?
The machinations of the gods in the bedroom and wasteland are long lasting and complex.
As for Lex?
Im going to give him the nickname Benny. As in Hill.
Cue Yakkety Sax.
So that's the trollop Night Mare was talking about. I guess she didn't care that Applejack discarded Severance in the first place since there were potential candidates here and there. Or she merely needed someone to open the way to Equestria.
While Kara's 'blessing' would do wonders for his role as mayor though the first one to be affected by the blessing would obviously be Waterlily, much to Sonata's chagrin...or she'd be oblivious to Waterlily's growing affection towards her beau and consider her a friend to spend time with. As for their relationship, if Lucy was 'shipping' Lex and Ribbon before he got the blessing, I'd think the ponies of Vanhoover would most likely ship Lex with somepony else, which would probably stress Sonata out.
However, with Cadence eventual arrival in Vanhoover, I foresee a clash of the two goddesses of love(though Kara feels more like the goddess of lust) since Cadence would most likely discover the blessing and inform Lashtada of her discovery. And with Lashtada's following greater than Kara's in Equestria...
7742460 What's interesting to me is that, if you go back and read the conversation that the Night Mare had with Applejack near the end of "The Apple Falls Far From the Tree," the Night Mare explicitly told Applejack that if she (AJ) didn't take that power (Severance) then she'd be taking the chance that it would be given to somepony less noble than her. That argument won AJ over, but she abandoned Severance a short time later when it attacked Rainbow Dash for trying to separate it from its wielder.
...and now somepony that Applejack probably wouldn't be too happy with (considering that she and Lex only sort of got along) has Severance now. You were warned, Applejack.
Insofar as Kara's blessing goes, I specifically set it up so that it won't be as much of a game-changer as it appears at first blush. That is, it's only going to affect people who are romantically compatible with Lex to begin with; if he's not the sort of pony who'd fit their criteria for someone that they could fall for, then Kara's blessing has no power to affect them. The operative element here is that there's no rhyme or reason regarding who someone could potentially love - there's literally no way to claim that someone's personal inclinations do or do not make sense. That means that I've given myself freedom to apply Kara's blessing, or not, to other characters as I see fit. Will Waterlily fall for him? Well, that depends on if she could ever love someone like Lex. How do you gauge that? You can't. She either could or she couldn't.
Of course, it helps that Lex is so severe that he makes it hard to love him anyway.
As for Lex and Cadance...that's going to be a thing. The problem there is that we don't know what, if any, powers Cadance has received from Lashtada. Moreover, Lashtada isn't equal to the other gods. While she might have been in Equestria slightly longer (a few months at most), and so built up a slightly larger following, Lashtada was severely weakened by being so near-totally forgotten on Everglow for centuries (having a few short-legs make it to Earth did help though, which is probably why she didn't die out altogether). By contrast, goddesses like Kara or the Night Mare have large bodies of followers on Everglow, and so never suffered a comparable reduction in power.
There's also the question as to how absolute these blessings are, in terms of application. While it's tempting to see them as being unstoppable, anything that's being channeled through a mortal body and invoked on the mortal plane is going to have limits. That means that there can potentially be countermeasures that could stymie even a gods-given power. It's why most blessings are given to someone who's already asked for them, and so aren't going to try and resist them in the first place. The nature of a high-magic setting is that very few things tend to be absolute.
Also, don't forget that Lashtada is a goddess of lust and sex as much as love also. Kara is more focused on the seductive and manipulative aspects of love, given that she's evil-aligned and also goddess of shapeshifters (i.e. deception). But Lashtada is neutral-aligned, and puts a strong emphasis on physical expressions of love. Remember, she came very close to seducing sci-Twi at the beginning of "The Everglow of a Twilight Sunset," despite the latter being rather freaked out by her advances.
Fun fact for those interested: This entire chapter was written because of a mistake I made.
Way back in chapters 14 and 15, I had Kara appear to Sonata in a dream. It was only quite a while later that I realized that I'd erred in doing that, since only the Night Mare and the Moon Princess are goddesses of dreams. In fact, I seem to recall one of the Ponyfinder books saying something about that being their exclusive ability.
The sequences in those chapters were too large to go back and edit, so I was left with trying to figure out how it was that Kara would appear in dreams when that wasn't part of her divine purview. This chapter was the result.
That's part of the fun that I've discovered as I've written this fic: there are no mistakes, only opportunities in disguise.
7742319 I did. And I really like Lex. I only recently started watching Smallville on hulu (I missed the original run), but the parallels with Lex Luthor are great. Luthor was always a much more interesting character than Superman. I never liked Superman (probably why I skipped Smallville when it was still in circulation). Lex Legis is motivated by the best of intentions. His hubris leads him to the precipice of the abyss, and you just know that he's just one step away from taking the plunge. I think at his worst he would be an "enlightened despot" a la Doctor Doom (who was actually a popular and even Beloved leader in his native Latveria).
You do moral ambivilence (SP?) really well. Lex doesn't struggle with his morality. He's absolutely certain that he knows what's best, and he's genuinely confused when others don't recognize his path as being the "right" choice. That's what makes the sacrifices he's willing to make so meaningful. And the depth he's willing to sink so potentially terrifying. There's almost nothing he can't or won't justify to reach his ends, which he truly believes are best for everypony (and I mean that as every pony, because he has a nasty streak of species supremacy going on there).
7744445 Thanks for saying so!
I agree that Lex could very well become an enlightened dictator; the kicker is that that's not really different than Princess Celestia, albeit Lex would be far more engaged with his realm. Comparisons to Doctor Doom are apt, though hopefully Lex won't end up being quite that bad.
I don't quite agree, however, with the idea that there's nothing he can't or won't justify to reach his ends. One of the things that Lex believes in quite strongly is that moral superiority is found in not only having the "correct" ends, but by reaching them via the "correct" means. That's why he was so unhappy that his victory over the dragon was so haphazard and narrow; winning isn't enough, he needs to win in the right way. That's an important distinction, since it means that he won't fall into an "ends justify the means" trap.
Beyond that, however, you're quite right. He's willing to put himself on the line for what he believes in, but at the same time is willing to go to extremes to enforce his views, since he believes that he knows what's best more than anyone else. Moreover, he does believe that ponies are better than other races, and particularly hates the idea of things that "corrupt" the pony form (which is why he was always so awful to Soft Mane).
As an aside, no chapter update today or tomorrow, due to the holiday. After that, I plan to continue updating, though (as I mentioned before) not being quite so strict with the one-per-day schedule.
7744777 Enjoy your turkey day.
On other subjects, Lex's objections to the "how" he won the fight with the dragon is the lynchpin of my case for the lengths hes willing to go. He completely lost sight of his objective (the pony's being saved), and turned to the idea that it was supposed to be HIM doing the saving. Winning wasn't enough, he wanted more. And "more" is the one thing you can never completely have, because there's always more to want. Don't know if that makes sense.
Blaze a path of victory! Through the typos.
I think he agreed.
"Blinks" only one? Hmm, either you are a better writer, I'm getting soft, or they are damn good at hiding.
Nice blessing to give to Lex, now another mare loves him, congrats.
7746058
Actually, it's "would agree" rather than "had agree." I changed the preceding "he'd" to "he would" to make that clearer.
I'd like to think the first option. It helped that I didn't need to keep going back and making changes for this chapter, since that's where most of the errors tend to creep in.
Other mares might, if he happens to meet someone compatible. But Sonata would have something to say about that if another mare did try to win his heart.
Kara, patron goddess of sloots
11674486 Quite right, along with whores, hoochies, call girls, escorts, gold-diggers, and sugar mamas (among others).